Friday, March 13, 2020
Old Testament: Genesis 37:3–4,12–28
Gospel: Matthew 21:33–43
Psalm 105:16–22
As I suppose many do, I read the assigned readings several times over several days. The passages are stories about Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers and raised to a powerful position by Pharaoh, and a parable about tenants killing the son of a vineyard owner for his inheritance. From the outset a vague idea moved around the edges of my mind—something about emissaries not being welcomed, not being accepted, not being wanted. Even being seen as an annoyance or a threat. It was a sort of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead impression. Eventually though, the vagueness burned off like fog, and a fully formed idea emerged through the mist. The breakthrough came at the end of the Gospel reading with the words Jesus recites from the scriptures:
“The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing
and it is amazing in our eyes.”
“And it is amazing in our eyes.” Our eyes just don’t see as the God sees. We are so humanly human. Jealous over Joseph’s coat with long sleeves, greedy to have the vineyard owner’s inheritance, we too easily, too often, see others through the filter of contemporary social values, values that might well have utilitarian expediency but have no fundamental merit. A fog creeps in around us. My point is not that in the grayness we mistake the messenger for the message (no Rosencrantz and Guildenstern here); my point is that we miss the message that is the messenger. We overlook the cornerstone, the Christ, in each other.
Amazed at “the Lord’s doing,” we stand in the fog asking,
Neither anointed nor appointed,
how could she come from heaven
bringing with her only open hands?
Susan Hagen
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